


girl & monster

by eggosandxmen



Series: she who fights monsters [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, M/M, Sibling Time With Sasha and Not Sasha, The Stranger Is a Good Guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25805869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggosandxmen/pseuds/eggosandxmen
Summary: Sasha James and the monster that has latched onto her.
Relationships: Gerard Keay & Nikola Orsinov, Martin Blackwood & Sasha James & Not Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist & Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Sasha James & Not Sasha James, Sasha James/Tim Stoker
Series: she who fights monsters [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872238
Comments: 9
Kudos: 76





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m a shameless Not Sasha apologist and this is the first Drabble of my The Stranger Is Good Actually series. Gerry found Nikola when she was made and took her from the circus, so she’s a good guy (who does not kill people OR steal people’s bodies). Similarly, Not Sasha is a newly created Stranger and thus is only herself, rather than replacing anyone.
> 
> Please don’t think too hard about this AU! The Stranger is comforting for me and while I obviously can’t redeem them in canon, I think I’m allowed to have a happy AU.

“Who are you?” Sasha asks, softly, keeping her flashlight directly at the face of the not-quite-person.

She’s got red hair and freckles, glasses that look thicker than Sasha’s, and a ripped old dress for clothes. She looks starved. She looks wrong.

“Who are you?” she responds, the vowels just a bit too high-pitched to be Sasha’s own voice. “Who are you?”

That time she gets it right, and Sasha has to consciously stop herself from shaking.

“I’m Sasha,” she says instead. “Do you need help?”

“Help?” She repeats, and Sasha nods.

“Here, follow me.”

She reaches out her hand and the other girl takes it. Her fingers are just a little too long and a little too sharp for Sasha’s liking, but she doesn’t say so.

“We’re going to see my friends Jon, and Tim, and Martin, okay?” 

The other woman nods, and Sasha gives her half a smile.

-

“A _Stranger_?” Jon asks, and Sasha glares at him.

“Jon, she’s clearly not trying to eat anyone. And if she does, we can take care of it! But until then, no one needs to freak out!”

“I’m calling Gerard,” Jon sighs, and Sasha smiles in victory.

-

“Wait, I’m sorry, we already have an avatar of the Stranger here?” Jon asks, and Gerard— Gerry— nods at him, shrugging.

“Yeah, me and Gertrude raided a wax museum a few years back. We found Nikola there.”

“And you’ve kept— I’m sorry— the _literal harbinger of the unknowing_ in artifact storage the entire time?” 

“Yup,” Gerry says, popping the p. “She’s a good kid, Jon. Once we got her away from those skin-stealing assholes; she’s only ever wore one skin, and it’s the one she was born with. Leave her be.”

“Well- can we see her?” Jon sputters. Gerry nods and gets up, marching out of Jon’s office in his platform boots without a word.

Sasha, Tim, Martin, and The Thing That Is Not Sasha are all waiting outside the office, Tim very happily infodumping about architecture with the other three listening— Sasha looking at Tim like he hung the stars, Martin half asleep but still smiling on Tim’s shoulder, and Not Sasha playing with Sasha’s hand, trying to mimic the bone structure.

They all look up and follow Jon as he goes after Gerry, the four of them still holding each other. When Martin takes Jon’s hand, they form a strange little human chain as they go.

Gerry opens a door and begins walking in a seemingly random pattern throughout Artefact Storage, eventually stopping and cupping his hands around his mouth.

_“Niki!”_

A vaguely-human looking girl drops down from the ceiling and onto his shoulders, her laugh echoing throughout the room. “Gerard, Gerard, Gerard Not-Keay, how good to see you—“

He spins her around off of his shoulders and she drops solidly to the floor, her entire body clunking.

It seems she’s still mostly plastic, though she does look human enough save for the slightly machine-like movements, and the fact that there are no teeth in her smile.

“This is Nikola, guys. Nick, this is the new Archivist, Jon Sims, and his assistants— Sasha, Tim, Martin, and—“

Nikola has already moved across the room, taking Not Sasha’s face in her hands. “Oh, look at you! You’re so— new!”

Not Sasha nods and Nikola laughs again. “And you’ve latched onto the Beholding’s girl?” She turns to Sasha, whispering conspiratorially. “Sometimes those of us who are Stranger than most end up latching onto the first person they see. Fortunately for me, I escaped that particular thing; not this one, though. You’re stuck with her!”

Sasha blinks and then shrugs. “Alright, then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not Sasha gets a crashcourse on the archival staff.

“Okay,” Tim says, holding up a flash card labeled ARCHIVIST. “Gimme a name.”

“Jon!” Not Sasha says happily, pulling on a strand of her hair in her excitement as they turn greyish. Tim smiles and gives her a thumbs up. 

He pulls out another one that says HANDSOMEST MAN IN THE UNIVERSE, and Sasha, from her desk, makes a noise of fond disgust.

“Tim,” Not Sasha says after a few seconds of thought, her hair turning Tim’s own shade— black and straight. Tim nods again and her hair goes back to red. She pulls on it again and Tim passes her his tangle, but she shakes her head and he lets it go.

The next one says COOLEST ASSISTANT IN THE WORLD, GIVES THE BEST HUGS. Not Sasha perks up and says “Sasha!” with the excitement level of seeing their long lost sibling again, but Tim shakes his head.

“No, this one’s Martin. This one—“ he holds up the card that says PRETTIEST GIRL AT THE PARTY (AND CAN PROVE IT WILL A SOLID RIGHT HOOK) “— is Sasha’s.”

“She’s never actually had a Martin hug,” Sasha notes, continuing to be the only person getting stuff done. 

Martin gasps from his place on the mattress in the corner. “Oh my god.”

He stands up like a man on a mission, hands on his hips, and marches over to Not Sasha. “Would you like a hug.”

Not Sasha nods and he helps her up from the floor before squeezing her into a patented Martin Bear Hug. Not Sasha makes a happy noise and hugs him back, careful of her fingers accidentally scratching him, and Tim grins.

“See? Best hugs in the entire world.” Tim pulls out the final card, which just says BASTARD, and Not Sasha shifts so there’s an eye tattoo on her hand.

“Yes! Elias! You nailed it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably gonna post more drabbles today because I love my stranger girl and her weird family :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elias meets a monster.

Elias calls Sasha into his office, noticing the woman’s glare has increased something like tenfold.

They stare at each other for a few minutes, and when Elias finally leans forward and tells her he knows about the Stranger they’re hiding in the office, she only smiles cooly. When he asks to be shown the monster, she shrugs and gets up, going back to the assistants’ room.

Jon is eating takeout on the cot in the corner, Melanie next to him. She flips Elias off when he comes in and Elias smiles grimly.

The Stranger has apparently stuck itself under a desk, so Sasha has to coax it out like a frightened animal, slowly and softly.

(“Hey,” Sasha says, “I know we told you to avoid Elias, but he asked to meet you and we can’t say no to that. It’s okay. I’m right here, you’ll be okay, alright?”

Not Sasha’s mostly hidden in shadows, which hides her form, and Sasha knows she’s stopped playing at human. She doesn’t mind. She reaches in for her hand anyway.)

Once it does, clinging to one of Sasha’s arms to stand up on unsteady legs, Elias looks it over critically. It’s obviously new, more of a— not child. A pup?— than anything else. It blinks at him, eyes shifting to a bright, unnatural green. 

“This is Not Sasha,” Sasha says to him. “You’ve met her. Get out of our office.”

Elias rolls his eyes and turns on his heel, noting the fact that Not Sasha is now definitely baring her teeth at his back as he walks out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m gonna try to do a drabble a day until school starts :). I’m largely out of TMA now due to lots of things (the fandom, the tragedy, etc) but I adore the first gang and now that Sasha hasn’t been replaced and the Unknowing doesn’t happen, we’re fine!
> 
> Also, note here that Tim actually got involved with the archives because he was friends with Sasha, I think. Danny is just fine! I wouldn’t redeem Nikola if he wasn’t.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not Sasha’s feelings on all this.

Not Sasha likes being Not Sasha.

She likes being able to change her hair whenever she likes, though her favorite has always been the bright red she arrived with. She doesn’t change her skin from the pasty pale she started with, because that would require less than savory methods, but she can do her eyes and her hair and her teeth, and no one ever minds.

She likes Tim, with his easy smile and the way he always shares his lunch with her, even though she doesn’t truly need to eat. She likes Martin and the sweater he lets her borrow. She likes Melanie and her thousands of stories (only a few of them true, Jon tells her). She likes Jon, his serious demeanor and the way a text buzzes on the assistants’ phones every evening, reminding them to go home and get some rest. She likes Gerry and Nikola, too, both of them occasionally coming in late at night to check on her. Nikola lives without eating fear, too, just grabbing the leftovers from the statement givers when they walk out. 

She likes Sasha most of all, of course. Really, she loves Sasha, though things like her definitely aren’t supposed to love anyone. She likes Sasha’s smile and Sasha’s hands and the soft way Sasha talks to her.

She especially likes times like now, when Sasha lets Not Sasha put her head on her lap when she’s working, one of her hands carding through Not Sasha’s hair and the other clacking away on her keyboard. It is the only time in her entire existence that Not Sasha has felt safe. Sasha sits on the mattress, too, rather than her desk, so that way Not Sasha doesn’t have to sit on the floor like a dog. She just lies down next to her with her head on Sasha’s lap, comfortable enough to sleep despite not needing it.

She can hear noise above her; Sasha stops her typing to accept a bag of takeout from Tim, and when Not Sasha makes a noise and shifts in her lap, Sasha puts a hand on the small of her back. She feels worried, but not because of Not Sasha; more for her.

“You okay, honey?” Sasha asks, and Not Sasha hums. 

Here is a secret Not Sasha will never tell anyone, not even Sasha: she can always taste their fear. Not of her— of the Eye, slowly trying to steal Jon away, of the avatars who used to run around the archives. Then other powers— even, partly, her own— want to mold them into something new, and horrifying, and Not Them.

She presses herself against Sasha, and Sasha smiles at her, passing Tim a fry and scowling when he takes another from the box.

Just let the others try to take Not Sasha’s friends. She’s sure they wouldn’t manage it; especially not on her watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tma is a trashpit and I’m not comfortable with supporting it anymore, but I will probably finish off this drabble series & then let it be, if that’s cool with everyone. Wonderland screwed me up a lot.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and prompts for this verse is appreciated!


End file.
